Tuesday 31 July 2012 09.41 EDT
First published on Tuesday 31 July 2012 09.41 EDT

The International Olympic Committee is to review the way it handles ticketing after calls for it to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in a centralised system that could be used for every Games.

Amid complaints about the ticketing process and concern over empty seats, the chairman of the British Olympic Association, Lord Moynihan, has called for the IOC to take control of selling tickets.

"This is such a major and complex issue. Moving forward, I hope this is an issue the IOC will take a lead on. It is a major ask to get any organising committee to invest hundreds of millions of pounds in a ticketing operation that is highly complex from a clean sheet of paper," he said.

"This is an opportunity for the IOC to put in place a ticketing system that can stay in place for each Games. It is so important to get this right. I hope this is recognised by the IOC as something they should take on, then build on that platform from Games to Games."

The IOC has said it will conduct an audit of its ticketing system amid allegations that national Olympic committees have been breaking its rules by reselling their allocation.

Moynihan called for a ticketing system that followed the model set by the centralised Olympic news and statistics service that is improved and adapted for every Games.

The London 2012 organising committee said on Tuesday that it had clawed back a further 3,800 tickets overnight across 30 sessions and 15 sports to sell to the public online, most of which had been snapped up immediately.

There are about 80,000 non-football tickets on sale through the Locog website, or set to go on to the market, as last-minute contingency tickets are released.

Locog is negotiating daily with international federations to reclaim some of those seats for the public amid widespread anger about the pockets of empty seats that have been reserved for the "Olympic family".

After complaints that the reclaimed seats were being drip-fed randomly on to the website, forcing prospective buyers to check regularly for updates, Locog said it was looking to standardise the process so tickets were released at the same time.

It is also introducing a "print-at-home" option for tickets to the gymnastics at North Greenwich Arena and the volleyball at Earls Court, so buyers will not have to collect their tickets in person.

But it has refused to reconsider its stance on only selling the reclaimed tickets online, despite pleas from overseas visitors to be allowed to buy from box offices at venues.

Locog said figures showed venues had been filled to about 90% of capacity since the Games began. Overall attendance on Saturday was 856,000, including an estimated 500,000 watching the men's cycling road race, which comprised 86% of capacity.

On Sunday, the total was 900,000, including 300,000 on the streets of London and Surrey watching Lizzie Armitstead take silver in the women's road race, equalling 92% of capacity. On Monday, when there were no free public events or football matches being played, the total was 370,000 – 88% of capacity.

Moynihan said it was "time to stop the blame game" over the unfilled seats in sold out venues. "We remain strongly of the position that we want every seat filled, from the point of view of the team and the wider British public," he added.